All things books, all the time

Recommending Books

I’ve written posts about all things books. Writing. Reading. Publishing. And just general news. The one thing I’ve tried stay away from doing is actively recommending books. I’ve written a few posts about the books I’ve read this year from the Amazon 100 Books Everyone Should Read List, but even then I don’t think I recommended any of those to my readers.

You may be wondering why I try not to recommend books. Well, because there is no “if you liked this, then you’ll definitely like this.” Just because you did doesn’t mean I will. For example, most of you know that I’m obsessed with Katniss and all things THG, and yes I would recommend those three books to anyone, no matter what they say their genre of choice is because I think those books transcend the YA dystopian genre, but those are the only ones.

I won’t tell you that if you enjoy reading crime novels that you should read every book on my shelf since it’s about 90% detective fiction. I won’t tell you to read my most recent read because I liked it so much. One thing I’ll never do is gift someone a book. Because what the heck do I know about their reading habits? Nothing.

One other quick example. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I thought it was a great book, but it doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to buy all of his previous books or that I’m going to delve deeper into YA. I don’t think either of those is going to happen right now. I read what I read and if it happens to be mystery or YA or sci-fi, then so be it. No single book or recommendation will be changing that.

If you’re wondering, the one book that doesn’t belong in a series that I’d recommend to any person is Anne Frank. But that’s it.

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78 thoughts on “Recommending Books”

I don’t know how to comment to this. I guess… Thanks for the info? 🙂
I recommend books occasionally, but most people don’t like to read what I read, so unless they ask me specifically, I keep my mouth shut. I’m happy reading what I read and how much I read. I’ve taken a few recommendations from others and occasionally it works out, but mostly, I like to find books myself. That’s one of my favorite parts of the reading process… scanning the books on the shelves, reading the back covers, and choosing all my lonesome the books I’ll read. So yeah… I’m not big on recommendations, either. Especially since some of the books people hate, I love, and vice versa. I’m weird.

Haha you don’t have to always comment. I don’t get my books from a store, so I just browse on Amazon when I want to buy a new one. The last recommendation I actually bought was probably a book by Tess Gerritsen. A friend from school recommended it and I bought it. In December 2012. Still haven’t read it. But it doesn’t matter, that girl’s eyes were green. My weakness. Hahaha

I like to comment on a lot of people’s posts. I’m just nosy and opinionated I guess.
Green eyes, eh? Should have guessed with your description of Sydney. So you must like Harry Potter for his green eyes? 😛

Oh, pfft. You haven’t read the books? Gar. Harry has GREEN eyes, and it’s mentioned ALL the time. That’s one thing that bugged me about the movies. I know it doesn’t really matter, but she writes about his green eyes all the time.
And Sydney sounds like a cool lady! In person. Go her!

Pretty darn sweet. That’s why I made myself a character (supporting character) in my books. When they get published (I’m being optimistic), I’ll at least have a snapshot of myself in something that will hopefully last a long time.

You need to come here and have a sit down with her. It’ll go like this.

“I’m Amy. I’m a writer. And I talk to John on his blog.
“Okay. I’m Sydney.”
“Do you know how big of a deal it is that he writes you in his books?”
“Yeah. I like reading my name and what he thinks of me. It’s fun. And really nice of him.”
“No. It’s more than just nice. Every person who reads any of his books will be reading about you. It’s the best thing a writer can do for anyone. And it tells a lot about what you mean to him.”
“I know. But it’s not like there’s anything I can do besides tell him thank you.”
“You should marry him. You know he’s great and I bet you are too.”
“Ha. I don’t think so.”
“Then you don’t deserve to have him write about you.”
“I never asked to be in his books.”
“That’s the point! You didn’t have to!” Then you storm out. Hahaha

Hahaha! Please. Haven’t we had this conversation before? About how I’m the biggest scaredy cat in the world? I might know how to take people down with a few good jabs to certain locales, but I’m too much of a wimp to do anything worse.

I only sometimes recommend books, unless it’s for children, then because I worked in the library system, and children can be molded, I recommend all kinds of books, and most of the time I’m right. I was very good at my job. But when it comes to adults, I take a more broad approach. Like, “If you don’t like disturbing mysteries, try the Maisie Dobbs books”. Not that they should read them, but if you are looking for something along the lines of such and such. I think some books transcend specifics. IE the Anne Frank book, which I have not read. I’ve read a lot of other unique books along the same lines… But yeah, there are only specific books I’ll recommend, and I always take the person into consideration. (BTW, for you I recommend the RIchard Castle ‘Nikki Heat’ books…. 🙂 )
And I really hate when anyone but my parent’s give me books. My parents just ask what I want. Everyone else guesses. I have only gotten one book that I didn’t ask for that I actually liked. It’s like perfume. Never buy perfume for someone.

OH! You really do need to watch the show, not that it’s necessary to read the books, but it does make it ten times better because you can see bits of the show put into the books. I’m dying to know who actually writes the books. The current one is different from the first four so I’m thinking it’s a different ghost writer. I wonder if Cannell was the author of the first ones. Or Connelly. Possibly even Patterson, though not as likely. And I can rave some more if you want. Okay, so, just because I’m curious. Tell me one of your favorite mysteries you’ve read. I’d like to know.

Michael Connelly? Or James Patterson? Not a chance. They’d get no credit for anything. I’ve watched reruns and I love Castle and….can’t think of her name. But they’re great. I didn’t watch this last season because I didn’t want to come in so late. Hmm one of my favorite mysteries. I’m not looking at my list, but Pacific Beat by T. Jefferson Parker. I don’t know what its rating or anything is on Amazon, but I LOVED it.

Just listened to The Writer’s Almanac and this was applicable.
By Caroline Wells: The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;
The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they’re the worst of all.

The Diary of Anne Frank was excellent. I think I agree with your analysis on recommending books to others. Getting books at the library was my only recourse for many years. This made it easy for me to try out authors and genres without spending money.

We’re both writers. And we love books. Hm. I wonder what I’ve said to make you reach your initial conclusion. Is it my blog posts or the comments? Cause I know I’m blunt when I respond to comments. About 100% more so than I would be through text or something. Cause everyone on here is a stranger to me. I’m not going to be like….well if I say this they might think the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter and it shouldn’t.

That’s the thing I hate about text/email/comments… you can’t tell when someone is joking. I just think we maybe clash in a lot of ways. You seem very opinionated and stubborn, where I am easy-going and open to suggestion. Do I always follow suggestions? No.
But I was kidding about not having anything in common. I get along with most everyone actually. 🙂